Closed Cities and Sites - - International and Cross-Disciplinary Research Network 2012-14

Closed Cities and Sites – International and Cross-Disciplinary Research Network is a network of researchers that deals with the contemporary challenges facing the formerly closed cities and sites in the Baltic Sea Region. Network members come from Estonia, Latvia, Sweden and Denmark. Closed cities and sites were highly important during the Cold War, not least for the military of the Soviet Union. Today these areas face a wide variety of challenges such as the deterioration of urban infrastructure, ecological degradation and lacking attention to the cultural heritage.

The network engages with these challenges from a double point of view. On the one hand ways of conceptualizing, documenting and mapping the areas are investigated, on the other scenarios and strategies for their future development. This double purpose calls for a cross-disciplinary approach. Consequently, the network relies on insights from the disciplines of architecture, urbanism, cultural heritage, (military) history and landscape architecture/planning. The concept of ‘dissonant heritage’ establishes – as a point of departure – the common platform for the different approaches.

The network activities are concentrated on a series of workshops and seminars and a study tour for the network members to be held in 2013-2014.